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VIDEO: Traveller raids help police smash money laundering ring
MORE than £2.6m has been confiscated as part of a Leicestershire police operation targeting organised criminals involved in money laundering.
Operation Clawback, as it has been named by police, followed on from Operation Lucky, which saw police raids carried out on several properties in Justin Park and at another traveller site at Braybrooke Cottage on April 1, 2005.
You can watch a video showing the inside of a house raided by police as part of Operation Clawback - just click the 'Play Video' button on the player above.
In the video, a police officer armed with a video camera carries out a tour, showing a lavish Versace dinner set and expensively decorated living room, dining room and bedroom.
Operation Lucky saw 16 people convicted in 2006 and almost 3m confiscated.
Police say officers followed up intelligence they had gathered during the operation and began to look into a number of individuals in the East Midlands and beyond.
The information gathered led to Operation Clawback, which saw raids on eight properties in Melton Mowbray, Bagworth, Loughborough, Coalville, Barlestone, Newark, Manchester and Mansfield followed by two further raids in September 2007 in Hopton, Staffordshire and Ollerton, Newark.
The massive police operation came to an end at Leicester Crown Court last Thursday after the last of 16 defendants were sentenced for money laundering offences.
The three-and-a-half-year inquiry also targeted criminal activity in the UK, Spain, Italy, Holland, Germany, the Channel Islands and Eire.
Taken together, the police investigations into Operation Lucky and Operation Clawback represent the biggest and most successful money laundering prosecutions in the UK.
In total both operations have seen 5.4m confiscated from criminals.
*For the full story, read this Thursday's Harborough Mail (July 9).
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Thursday 17 May 2012
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